After opening postseason play with a 4-3 walkoff win Monday over Christ Presbyterian Academy, fourth-seeded Zion moved into the semifinal game by defeating Battle Ground Academy — the regular-season titlist — in a 14-11 shootout Tuesday.

Ezell-Harding, meanwhile opened tourney play as the No. 2 seed and defeated Franklin Road Academy 9-4 on Monday before winning 8-3 over Middle Tennessee Christian on Tuesday.

On Wednesday, ‘visiting’ Zion took a 1-0 first-inning lead as Hazard tripled home Caroline Fox, who reached on a two-out error. Ezell-Harding countered in the bottom of the inning with a tying run, but Zion moved ahead for good with a three-run third inning.

The rally was keyed by Jaycie Lyles’ one-out triple down the leftfield line, as she scored when Anna Grace Fox’s grounder was misplayed at shortstop. Fox later scored, and Hazared walked and later scored on an error — one of Ezell-Harding’s seven for the game.

“We’ve been working through that all year,” Ezell-Harding coach Marc Hulan said regarding his team’s shaky defense. “The girls have come along since the beginning of the season and fought hard all year. I think (Zion) just caught us a little flatfooted.”

Ezell-Harding scored twice in the bottom of the third, but senior Lilly Adcox held the traditional state power in check through the second half of the game — allowing just three hits over the final four innings and benefitting from a big fourth-inning double play.

“I was pretty tired,” said Adcox, who was pitching for the third straight day. “I just focused on my spin a lot. I wasn’t worrying about throwing strikes. I was just focusing on my spin. That’s what got me through.”

Zion finished with just three hits against Ezell-Harding’s Kendall Collier, who finished with five strikeouts but was undone by her team’s defense.

“We didn’t hit the ball, but she’s a bigtime high school pitcher,” Zion coach Tommy Fox said. “Sometimes you’ve just got to tip your cap. She’s good. It’s hard to have good at-bats against her.”

Zion made its baserunners count, though, stealing seven bases.

“Sometimes you’ve got to find a way to manufacture runs,” Fox said. “We’ve got some speed at the top of the order and we’re going to make you make plays. You can’t teach speed. We’re going to put people in motion, put (the ball) on the ground and make you throw us out. We know we’re not going to score 10 or 12 runs, but we’re going to put pressure on and we’re going to play defense. I think the pressure got to them.”

Zion will face the winner of Wednesday’s losers bracket final between Ezell-Harding and BGA in Thursday’s 5 p.m. championship game. Should Zion lose, there will be a second game immediately following.